conrad_hoffman Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 A bit of a surprise, given their size and activity. https://www.dpreview.com/news/5901145460/dpreview-com-to-close Moderator Note: This conversation is the result of merging two threads on the same topic. The original opening posts were this one and the post immediately below, by Sanford, William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 Just got the email as I'm sure many of you have. They will be missed, so many things and people going away the last few years. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjoseph7 Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 I heard Amazon closed them down during the last round of lay-offs. Amazon bought DPReview which is based in England back in 2007. They then moved the operations to Seattle to be closer to the headquarters. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Smith Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 "role eliminations" clearly is a new euphemism for layoffs/firing. Why not call a spade a spade? Such is corporate life. DPreview was clearly making insufficient money despite being a fairly well-respected general news site. 2 Robin Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Crowe Posted March 21, 2023 Share Posted March 21, 2023 No one does standard studio camera testing like they do. Will be greatly missed. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels - NHSN Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 They seemingly plan to take all contents down - that is a shame. 3 Niels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanKlein Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 Chris and Jordon moving to PetaPixel to contiue their reviews and I imagine moving other stuff from DPReview. Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake Join PetaPixel to Lead its YouTube Channel | PetaPixel 1 Flickr gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
movingfinger Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 35 minutes ago, Niels - NHSN said: They seemingly plan to take all contents down - that is a shame. That's what I heard too and I don't understand. What will happen to this wealth of content? It has, if nothing else, historical significance. If I google for camera reviews of the Nikon D800 say, will I no longer get the DPR review showing up? Is all this information to be lost? Can some independent hosting site offer to take over the content and keep it on line or is Amazon asserting that if they can't (won't) do it then they won't let anyone else do it either? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 The DPR Forums was (were?) always a good source of information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmanthree Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 Saw that, and it's really hard to believe. I guess they weren't generating the required amount of revenue to satisfy Amazon's thirst for money. So where can we argue about Brand A vs Brand B now? Where can we obsess about noise levels in various sensors? Kidding, of course. The site will be missed. But it could be a boon for this site, I hope. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd_k. Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 I won't miss the comment sections, but DPreview has been the internet resource I have used to make every single decision about every digital camera I have every purchased since the Nikon D1x. I can't believe its going away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_dunn2 Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 I found them to be a useful resource for reviews and tests. The forum section, well, once in a while I'd end up there from a search engine. I guess I'll have to look for other sources for reviews going forward. Darn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd_k. Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 2 hours ago, AlanKlein said: Chris and Jordon moving to PetaPixel to contiue their reviews and I imagine moving other stuff from DPReview. Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake Join PetaPixel to Lead its YouTube Channel | PetaPixel The only photo website I truly dislike is PetaPixal. Their content is clickbait(ish), the journalistic style is kind of jerky. Chris and Jordan will be the only reason I visit. Its truly a shame that they got purchased by Amazon and moved to Seattle. The quality of the photo samples got so bad when they moved (rainy, ugly Seattle) I stopped looking at them. Its a shame they did not move them to Austin, or some other cheap sunny place with a university and a good arts/history scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Smith Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 No one surely looked to them for photographic excellence in the sense that sample photos are examples of high art. Lenstip is arguably even worse. But sample photos are just to give people ideas of sharpness, bokeh, and (how I hate that word) "rendering". I thought their reviews were useful, and it will be sad if all this information is lost. I too feel that PetaPixel is not a patch on them. Having to rely on YouTube reviewers does fill a sentient human with dread. Robin Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrankin Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 Perhaps activity will perk up here, as their million-plus followers seek other communities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted March 22, 2023 Share Posted March 22, 2023 1 hour ago, vrankin said: Perhaps activity will perk up here, as their million-plus followers seek other communities. Why should we assume P/N is in any better financial health than DPR. I think DPR catered to a MUCH younger crowd than we have here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
movingfinger Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 As a follow-up to my lament above, I'm happy to report that historic DPReview content won't be unavailable going forward, efforts are underway to archive the content and keep it available to the general public: DPReview is being archived 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 41 minutes ago, movingfinger said: As a follow-up to my lament above, I'm happy to report that historic DPReview content won't be unavailable going forward, efforts are underway to archive the content and keep it available to the general public: DPReview is being archived Is that legal? I would assume the content is copyrighted by the authors and owner of the site where it was published, just copying and republishing it somewhere else might not be legal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilkka_nissila Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 (edited) 11 hours ago, Sanford said: Why should we assume P/N is in any better financial health than DPR. I think DPR catered to a MUCH younger crowd than we have here. I assume that in the absence of the dpr site, forum traffic would move to other sites and so increased traffic also here is likely. However, PN is so quiet that I am not sure if people know it still exists. 🙂 What PN needs is more traffic and I suspect this would be sufficient for it to continue operating (with some advertising and subscription revenue). I don't know about the age distribution since I haven't seen any such data. I do think that dpreview was largely about the gear and very little about photography itself, and it proliferated the idea that you buy improved results by spending money rather than learning new skills. This is highly misguided thinking. I think the photography community is better off with sites that focus on how to achieve one's photographic goals and discussing photography itself rather than equipment. (I realize I mostly post about technical topics myself, but I have no illusions about its role in the broader context i.e. such things are comparatively unimportant where the objectives of photography are concerned.) Edited March 23, 2023 by ilkka_nissila 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanKlein Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 On 3/22/2023 at 8:40 AM, movingfinger said: That's what I heard too and I don't understand. What will happen to this wealth of content? It has, if nothing else, historical significance. If I google for camera reviews of the Nikon D800 say, will I no longer get the DPR review showing up? Is all this information to be lost? Can some independent hosting site offer to take over the content and keep it on line or is Amazon asserting that if they can't (won't) do it then they won't let anyone else do it either? How important is keeping information on obsolete equipment? Flickr gallery: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanford Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 4 minutes ago, AlanKlein said: How important is keeping information on obsolete equipment? My newest camera is ten years old. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
za33photo Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 3 minutes ago, AlanKlein said: How important is keeping information on obsolete equipment? Is the History and Technology not important for future references and enjoyment ??. I for one , shoot with older equipment , and enjoy reading up on all sorts of older things. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJG Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 39 minutes ago, AlanKlein said: How important is keeping information on obsolete equipment? There are varying definitions of obsolescence--my newest camera came out in 2016 and I'm not feeling any need to replace it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_leha Posted March 23, 2023 Share Posted March 23, 2023 the website was HUGE under Phil Askey. Became a gadgetmania nonsense under Amazon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonybeach_1961 Posted March 24, 2023 Share Posted March 24, 2023 (edited) The DPR forums were a disaster -- good riddance to that. I stopped missing the place after a couple of weeks of "detoxing." Edited March 24, 2023 by tonybeach_1961 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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